Friday, May 20, 2011

The educated African is the privileged African. For through her education, she has gained knowledge. And knowledge, as we – the educated - know, is power. There she sits, in her position of power, perched on the pedestal of privilege, cushioned by the false sense of pride. From this pedestal she looks upon those who know not as much as she and expects recognition for her intellectual prowess.

The ‘Free Speech Night’ is brought to you by the ‘Bloomers’ in collaboration with Soma Book Café! This is an exciting and insightful night of poetry, dance and song. We welcome all art lovers to come and listen or participate in the recitals. Bring something to present -- your own or any other you love.

The Bloomers intend to contribute to the Art movement in Tanzania nation-wide and internationally, while nurturing, and improving the talents of all participants and encouraging spectators. This is through linking with others who run open, safe and inspiring spaces and creating new mobile art spaces.

Please note that we welcome poems in Kiswahili and English languages.Find us on Facebook by searching 'Bloomers'.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

The burning of the mabanda belonging to ‘Wabara’ at Pwani Mchangani in Zanzibar has become a big story, treated as a criminal or a political act by Zanzibaris against mainlanders. It may be both, but nobody has asked where the root of the problem may lie in the economic and social sphere.

The first question that may be asked is whether all these 80 or so shops indeed belonged only to mainlanders, and there were not any belonging to local people. From the picture that I have seen, the whole area was swept clean. If this was the case, then the second question is how such an odd situation could have arisen in a fishing village in Zanzibar, that suddenly there should be such an flood of the ‘wabara’, without providing any opportunity to the local people to benefit from any development there.

The answer may lie in the way tourism has invaded Zanzibari villages, and how it has undermined local economy and society. I remember going to nearby Nungwi village in 1979 before the tourism invasion. It was not a rich village, but it was to a considerable extent a neat village and a comfortable self-reliant community subsisting on local agriculture and fishing, selling the surplus to the town. When I visited the same village last year, it had been turned upside down, and I could not recognise it at all. It has been flooded with shops blaring loud music, with bars and mabanda selling all sorts of things to tourists and others. It resembles Kariakoo.

A couple of years ago there was a conflict there where women of the village came out demonstrating against the huge inflow of prostitutes who they said were breaking up their families there. Some years previously, a politician extended his bar into one of the streets of Zanzibar Stone Town against the existing law, with drunkards and prostitutes blocking the street that even a self-respecting man would not dare to pass, let alone women. He was approached by one of the European neighbours, but he was rudely told to shove off. Other neighbours approached the police, but they did nothing to enforce the law. Where everything failed, some disgruntled person resorted to the bomb. Overnight, the bar went indoors where it was supposed to be according to the law in Zanzibar.

More recently several bars that had sprung up in the middle of peaceful residential communities in Zanzibar were burnt. In the recent case also there have been complaints that the mabanda were haunts of bars and prostitutes.

Did the government or the police take any action to deal with the grievances of the local villagers to prevent the destruction of these communities for the sake of the tourist dollars and those pursuing them? Therefore, should we be surprised that some local villagers would resort to be taking law into their own hands when those responsible fail to fulfil their duties?

We should not be surprised, without necessarily condoning such acts. This has been taken by the authorities as a criminal act, and they have promised the ‘full force of the law’ to suppress it. It has been interpreted by those affected as hatred by Zanzibaris against wabara. If there is such ‘hatred’, there must be a reason.

In the persisting widespread discontent in Zanzibar against the Union, which many see as not having benefited the smaller partner, but on the contrary, is destroying local communities, why should we be surprised that it may become a demonstration of the underlying political problem?

Some people on the mainland have raised the spectre of a similar treatment against Zanzibaris on the mainland. If Zanzibaris become responsible for a similar disruption of the local economy and society in their new homes on the mainland, they may suffer a similar backlash.

However, this should not stop us from asking some fundamental questions about our economic policies, especially about tourism, to the neglect of everything else, without considering the social, cultural, and even political consequences to our country and its people.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Travelling can be quite an adventure. No wonder we say ‘tembea uone!’ Yes, ‘travel and see!’

It is with this excitement I hardly slept last night lest I miss my early flight to a place I have never been before. But little did I know that at this moment in time I will still be ‘stuck’ at ‘home sweet home’. The experienced traveller in me could not convince airport officers to let me travel.

Of course I had a return ticket. I also had a hotel reservation. All my invitation and sponsorship letters, or rather, emails were in place. But, alas, I didn’t have that central document – the VISA!

A week earlier I went to apply for one at their Embassy. But since this is a meeting organized by arguable the largest ‘supranational’ body in the world, arrangements were made to ensure that the delegates, especially those from countries with no such Embassy, get their VISA stamped on arrival. Yet I was told the documents I have will suffice. My inquisitiveness was thus appeased.

My trip to the airport started with all the possible positive coincidences a traveler in Dar es Salaam could imagine. No traffic at the road and a sharp taxi driver. I got at the airport on time and was luckily enough attended by an officer I am familiar with. But even that could not help.

The officer had to liaise with other officers so as to make sense of my documents. I sat down wondering how come no one knows about the arrangements made by the Embassy responsible for our entry in their country and the international body that is organizing the meeting. Time, of course, was running out. But I had no doubt in my mind that someone who knows will sort it out.

Ironically, I sighed with relief when the matter was forwarded to an officer responsible for the airline named after the country I was going to. The irony is s/he was the one who actually dismissed the documents I have and went on to explain why they were not valid as if I had not understood what was written therein. But that is precisely why I went to apply for their VISA.

Up to that point I still thought I could convince and try to make him/her contact the authorities responsible in the other country. Then I had the other officer asking what s/he should do. “Yes offload him”, that was the answer. It dawned on me that I was just a part of the baggage that had been checked in and now was the time for its offloading lest it smuggles itself out of our country.

This was the first time I was experiencing such a situation. Maybe I was too shocked even to ask if the ‘buck stopped’ with this airline officer or there was someone else in their hierarchy whom I could talk to. By the time I came back to my senses the time was up. So I took my load and left.

However, leaving was not easy. That is another part I never knew about. Apparently when you are ‘offloaded’ you are a potential suspect. So I had to endure a barrage of questions from police/security officers. As I listened to their subtle queries I wondered how much I know of our international airports let alone our country. But I guess everyone there was just doing his/her job.

It was thus saddening when someone who knows better about what was transmitted to all relevant authorities about our VISA arrangements asked me whether the airline officer who denied me entry was Tanzanian. The conclusion was clear without even saying it: ‘That is why!’

Maybe that is why Tanzania misses a lot of opportunities. Probably we don’t know the importance of taking care of our very own in such a global context. Perhaps we don’t even know the importance of the movement of our people in/for the social-economic welfare of our country.

After all, as I was told much later by those who know better about our laws than me, the onus of refusing me entry into another country rests with that country and not mine. So, in essence, they could have just let me go and deal with authorities there. Yet it seems it is my very own fellow citizens who denied me. I guess it is about time now I seriously revisit our immigration laws.

So I am still here wondering how much personal and collective loss, in financial and other terms, that we have incurred because of all these misunderstandings. I can hardly blame anyone since everyone claimed to have done the right thing. Yet we all had/have to rectify what went wrong.

Everyone was indeed doing his/her job. But some were simply doing so to the letter. That is why.

Karibu kwenye ulingo wa kutafakari kuhusu tunapotoka,tulipo,tuendako na namna ambavyo tutafika huko tuendako/Welcome to a platform for reflecting on where we are coming from, where we are, where we are going and how we will get there